TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Ashley Greenidge Kyotanabe-shi, Kyoto-fu 2008-2010

Getting Organized Whether you are teaching Elementary, Junior High, or High School the most valuable skill to have in your arsenal is good organization.

Keep all of your resources in one place.

Have a good supply of inexpensive materials (hint: shop through your local 100-yen store when you arrive). Binders (clear file pages to organize lessons you’ve done/printed) Flashcards and clear cover sheets for flashcards Stuffed animal or puppet or ball for activities Prizes – stickers, pencils, erasers etc

LESSON PLANNING Classes are usually 45 minutes

Class structure will vary on age/level but basically follows

Warm Up can also be combined with Review period depending on the lesson

Always have an extra activity (5-10 minutes) planned in case your lesson ends early.

Typical Class Structure

5 Minutes Greetings/Warm Up

10 Minutes Review from Previous Class

20 Minutes Main Activity

5 Minutes Review of Main Points

5 Minutes Closing / Goodbye

Types of Lessons

Introductions

Warm Up

Reading

Writing & Listening

Pair work

Self Introduction Prepare this before you arrive in Japan

Pictures of your family, friends, local town etc

Activities you like

Prepare LOTS of visuals

Move around

It gets easier

Warm Up Activites Short Activities: Lots of Class Participation

5 – 10 Minutes

Word Tag

True / False (Maru/Batsu)

Telephone

Shiritori

2 Truths + 1 Lie

• Warm Ups can be related to the previous lesson or the upcoming lesson but do not have to be.

• Uses English in a fun way • Let students “play” with English

Reading Textbooks will have reading excerpts but if your teacher asks you to prepare something: • Write your own “short stories” for class• Make a fake newsletter with different articles• Have a short story with descriptions and then have the students put

corresponding pictures in order • Fill in the blank or quiz to test for comprehension

WRITING & LISTENING ACTIVITESMany JTEs prefer to use their school texts instead of creating a lot of new materials. This helps because the students are familiar with vocabulary in the books. However, holidays are great to share new cultural information and vocabulary and there are plenty of ways to keep it fun.

Crossword Grids

Word Searches

Fill in the Blank

You Describe, They Draw

PAIR WORK

Pair work allows students to practice English. It is great for learning new sentence structures or new vocabulary.

• Discuss with ALT beforehand as they most likely have done this before and have a system for dividing into pairs

• Don’t be afraid to use “Rotating Pairs” but make sure your JTE understands what’s going on

• Worksheets help keep students on point• Simple 2 person board game like worksheets go over well • “Describe the picture” • Students create a conversation using grammar points

GOOD RESOURCES FOR TEACHING

Flash cards, lesson ideas, games, songs, on-line stories: GENKI ENGLISH – www.genkienglish.net DLTK KIDS – www.dltk-kids.com NICK JR – www.nickjr.comED HELPER – www.edhelper.com

ESL Specific ESL KID STUFF: http://www.eslkidstuff.com/ PRINTABLE BOARD GAMES: www.esl-lounge.com/board_gamesindex.shtml ESL Kids: http://www.eslkid.com/index.html ESL Partyland: http://www.eslpartyland.com/ DAVE’S ESL CAFE: http://eslcafe.com/search/index.html ESL LESSON PLANS (ALL LEVELS): http://iteslj.org/Lessons/ MAKE YOUR OWN PUZZLES/WORD SEARCHES ETC: http://puzzlemaker.com/chooseapuzzle.html  

LESSON PLANNING

Activity to commence after short break.

Thank you!